Picture in your mind the last thing you colored with Copic Markers or even colored pencils.
Don't feel bad, I see people making this same blunder every day and many of them are definitely NOT beginners!
What mistake?
Bikes are great; you can go a lot of places on a bicycle.
But if you're sunning your buns at one end of the beach and the daiquiri bar is way the heck down at the other end... it's highly unlikely that you're going to use peddle power to cross a mile of sugar sand beach.
Bicycles don't work very well in the desert; they're not so great underwater and I'd hate to be left with only a bike during a Michigan January.
Now I'm not beating up on bikes and bicycle enthusiasts. I love my bike.
But only an idiot tries to use a bike in a snowstorm. It simply isn't designed to do what you're asking it to do.
That includes paper.
Especially when you're working with Copics and colored pencil. Trying to blend alcohol markers on a dollar store drawing pad is like trying to peddle your way down Daytona Beach.
You're not using the right tool to facilitate good blending.
Not just faithfully, I've used it exclusively.
For my style of marker painting, it simply works best.
Ink stays wet on the surface of X-Press It paper slightly longer than with other blending cardstocks. That extra wet-time allows for better blending. I see significant improvement when I move students from their preferred paper to X-Press It.
I combine marker with colored pencil. The combination of wet and dry gives me more depth, texture, and mark versatility than is possible with just marker alone.
I love my X-Press It. The problem is that X-PI is everything a colored pencil paper should not be.
X-Press It is super slick with a slightly resistant surface. Way smoother than hot press, it's Bing Crosby driving a Zamboni eating butter kind of smooth.
Meanwhile colored pencil likes things gritty. Artists call it tooth; a good colored pencil paper has tiny jags and crevices which grab hold and collect pencil pigment as you color.
X-Press It cardstock is as toothless as the starting line-up for the 1972 Red Wings. Trying to color with colored pencil on X-PI is like spreading grape jelly onto a greased pig. About 70% of what you lay down ain't gonna stick.
So not to make light of Sophie's Choice, but at the start of every project, I'm usually standing at the train station trying to pick between X-Press It for Markers or Vellum Bristol for colored pencil.
A student once handed me some sheets of "sparkle paper" in class. I'm always up for trying a new paper, but she presented it as a marker paper, something another Copic instructor had recommended.
It was a nice cardstock, smooth with an interesting pearly flake embedded in the pulp. I made a few test swatches and no angelic chorus descended from the heavens. I decided I liked X-Press It better and filed the Cryogen away in my drawer of assorted paper.
Time passed.
I cleaned out that drawer last month and came across some unmarked sheets of cardstock. As I'm mentally berating the wheel running hamster who lives in my head for not labeling the paper... my fingers... they were feeling the paper. I was actually petting the paper.
He danced and sang because we were petting a marker cardstock with a bit of tooth.
Holy Grail anyone?
I've been playing with sparkle paper Cryogen recently. I'm pretty pleased.
I wouldn't say Cryogen White is the answer to ALL my problems but it does get the Nazi off my back. Here's what I've found.
Full Name: X-Press It Blending Card
Surface: ultra hot-press, feels coated but isn't
Color: bright white
Weight: about 110 lbs.
Tooth: very little
Thirst: coats well on first pass, no excessive ink usage
Alcohol Ink Blendability: extended wet-time makes for easy and amazing blends
Vividness: colors are bold, no visible changes upon drying.
Bleed (ink pulled by paper fibers beyond stamp lines): hardly noticeable
Leak-through (to back of paper): only after 3 coats
Water Damage: exposure to water will damage paper irreparably. Surface will buckle, then separate from core, can peel off.
Colored Pencil: accepts a first coat with a sharp pencil. Hard to layer or blend, must press harder than normal to collect color. Color can smear.
Full Name: Cryogen Curious Metallics
Surface: hot-press
Color: "white" but is actually a creamy, yellow tinged white
Weight: 89 lbs.
Tooth: light tooth
Thirst: coats well on first pass, draws more ink than X-Press It
Alcohol Ink Blendability: moderate, some strokes remain visible after second pass.
Vividness: some colors mute slightly as they dry.
Bleed (ink pulled by paper fibers beyond stamp lines): light bleed but controllable
Leak-through (to back of paper): after 2nd coat
Water Damage: a light spray did not affect paper. A good soaking caused buckling and slight swelling. Swelling disappeared when dry but buckle remained. No peeling or bubbling.
Colored Pencil: accepts 2-3 coats of colored pencil, waxy pencils blended well. Easy to color softly with no visible stroke lines.
X-Press it on top, Cryogen on bottom. Creamy color of Cryogen is more noticeable in real life.
Overall, a move to Cryogen means that I sacrifice some marker blending ability in order to gain pencil blending ability.
You can see some unblendable marker strokes in the blue stripes just before the tail on the Cryogen. The B37 was especially stubborn.
B99 looks more deep and vibrant on the X-PI but it's only noticeable when side by side.
B32 (lightest blue in the stripes) is noticeably lighter and more even on X-Press It.
The difference in aqua colors here is solely due to the yellow of Cryogen making all colors look warmer.
Blue pencil over yellow marker on X-PI looks muddy. Same on Cryogen looks more subtle and pleasing.
Not only does pencil "stick" better to Cryogen, white gel pen adheres more smoothly
Maybe.
I'll still teach with X-Press It because I never want to place hurdles in front of my students. Blending is so much easier with X-PI that I can't justify the switch for my beginners and casual colorers.
But for any project (personal or with advanced students) that requires more than 50% colored pencil, I'll be using Cryogen.
I don't usually make gigantic claims
I'm not the Sham-wow guy and I'm not a life hacker.
But I do know a thing or two about coloring.
What I know most is this:
Even Mozart, who was born with boundless talent that practically dripped out his nose and ears... even he still had to practice, practice, practice before he became great.
But now that I've put a gigantic qualifier on everything I write below, there actually are a number of teensy-tinsy things that you (yes, YOU!) can do TODAY to immediately improve your coloring.
I'm serious.
There are small things you can start doing right now that will dramatically improve the quality of your coloring.
Otherwise known as "Amy points out the little things some of you are not doing..."
Once a month, we'll talk about one small thing, one mind-numbingly easy step that you can add to your coloring routine that will allow you to color better forever.
What the heck does that mean?
Well first, allow me to point out one small difference between an artist who colors and a crafter who colors. And this isn't a judgement here, I'm simply going to point out one key difference between the way I work and the way you work.
When I color one of my own digital stamps, I use the exact same tools and techniques that you use.
The difference is that I drew the original image and you're coloring an image that someone else has drawn for you.
It sounds like a small difference, because a drawing is just a set of guidelines, right? Why does it matter who draws the stamp, as long as it's cute, eh?
Actually, it makes a world of difference.
You see, when I draw a digital stamp for you, I do a lot of thinking.
Take this House Mouse stamp here, it's "Pincushion" by Stampendous.
As the illustrator (not me) drew out this scene of mice, thimbles, and a big pincushion, they went through a long thought process.
"The large mouse has two feet that he's lifting into the air on each jump. His ears are pinnned back in excitement. There are pins in the cushion but they're not right where the mouse is jumping, otherwise he'd stab himself. The sleeping mice are completely relaxed with limp ears and limp tails..."
Yes, artists actually think these kinds of thoughts as they draw.
This thinking process means that the artist is completely familiar with every single object in their drawing. They know what everything is, why it looks the way it looks, and where one object stops and another object starts.
They understand everything inside the image because they thought it through before they drew it.
And your information about the image is completely second hand.
Here's Whipper Snapper Design's "Squeaky Baker".
Tell me quickly, what are the two things falling off the baker's tray?
Cookies? Muffins? Truffles? Spitwads?
It's a little hard for us to tell, primarily because we didn't draw this stamp. But the artist knows exactly what those roundish brown things are.
That's today's Tiny Thing: before you pull out your markers, maybe even before you stamp the image onto paper, stop and take a good amount of time to visually walk yourself through the entire image.
Start at the most logical place on the image and work your eye around the entire image. Don't just look, actually think your way through every element in the stamp.
For me, I'd start with the face. Expression is key, so I'm not just looking to see how many eyes and noses he has, I'm looking at how his eyebrows are related to his eyes, is he happy? Sad? Surprised? Angry? Is he smiling or smirking? Where do his whiskers start and stop? All of these things are important to preserve the look of a cute and happy mouse. If we mistake a tuft of fur for an eyebrow, we could accidentally make him look evil and wicked. We don't want Satan's personal mouse baker on your grandaughter's birthday card.
Next I might move to his body. I note that I can only see one hand but I can almost see two feet. That affects the colors I choose for some of the foot-shapes.
From there I'd work even further outwards, evaluating every single item in the stamp image. What is it? What color should it be? How much of it can I see?
This is why I want you to perform the evaluation BEFORE you pick out your markers.
This prevents mistakes.
What kind of mistakes?
Well, here's one: Really look at that baker's hat. Now we're looking at a pre-colored version of the stamp. Lucky us, because the hat is shown as white, we can easily deduce that this is a chef's hat.
But what if we were looking at that shape in just the black and white version?
Frankly, if all I could see was that cloud shape sitting on a cylinder shape, I might think it was a muffin.
I've seen stranger things in stamps. A mouse with a muffin on his head isn't out of the realm of possibility.
Without properly evaluating the entire image, I might grab a brown set of markers. I could give that muffin some blueberry spots. I could give it a pink cupcake liner. I could color that shape the best darned muffin you ever did see.
And then feel stupid later when someone asks why my mouse is wearing a dirty chef's hat.
C'mon. We've all done something similarly wrong.
How many times have you been coloring leaves in a tree, only to discover there was a bird in the tree AFTER you've colored his tail green?
Or colored a flower petal green?
Or thought you were coloring a long lock of hair that turned out to be a wind-blown scarf?
You want to be as familiar with the images as the original artist was.
To color it well, you need to know it well.
Don't believe me? Think I'm being silly because you would never-ever color a muffin on a mouse's head?
Well check out this image:
This is Penny Black's "Dear Mice, Watering Can" stamp.
I'm going to ask you a few questions now. And don't write them off as stupid questions because the answers won't be obvious to everyone.
What is the object at #1?
Is this a strap for overalls or a strap for the backpack the mouse is wearing?
What is the mouse standing on and what is the item at #2?
If the mouse is standing on a terracotta pot, that's the brim of the pot. Or is the mouse standing on an aluminum bucket with a small rolled brim on a hill of grass?
What is going on at #3?
Is that a water leak or is the watering can sitting on a paving stone?
What is item #4?
More water or a rock?
Think I'm kidding? I'm dead serious. I can easily color a very convincing version of every option I've listed.
And these options aren't as dumb as a mouse with a muffin on his head. Every question I asked was entirely reasonable based upon the drawing.
Only the original artist knows the correct answer. We can make an educated guess but we can't be totally sure.
Make an educated guess based on careful thought and consideration.
Don't just color away at it without stopping to think about what you are coloring.
Evaluation is One Tiny Thing you can do to improve your coloring immediately.
It's a simple thing to do; it takes very little time and it prevents a lot of weird stuff from happening.
Try it today. You'll appreciate the results!
